According to the organisation's calculations, the EU will reach the so-called "Earth Overshoot Day" on Tuesday, the day from which it will be consuming resources on credit that it should only use next year.
Last year, the day when Europeans had already consumed the entire year's resources was recorded on 3 May. That day, environmental organisations considered the situation “unsustainable and irresponsible”.
At the time, more than 300 civil society organisations called on political leaders in an open letter to work towards a climate-neutral and nature-positive economy.
A year later, the EU has not improved, and instead has become worse, falling five days behind on the overconsumption map.
Although the EU represents just 7% of the world's population, it would take three planets to meet demand if everyone on Earth lived like Europeans, the organisations said.
Portugal situation
According to the “Global Footprint Network” map, Portugal will reach the end of its resources for this year next Monday, which means that if everyone on the planet lived like the Portuguese, the resources for this year would run out on 5 May.
This also means that the Portuguese are consuming the resources allocated to them more quickly. In 2024, Portugal ran out of resources on May 28, 23 days behind this year.
According to the “Global Footprint Network”, the first country to exhaust its resources this year was Qatar, on February 6th. Last year it was also the first, but on February 11th.
Luxembourg appears again in second place, consuming everything on 17 February, and in third place, Singapore, on 26 February.
The United States exhausted its resources on March 13, Denmark and Australia on the 19th, the Russian Federation on April 6 and France on the 19th. Spain will only exhaust its resources on the 23rd.
On the other side of the map, Uruguay stands out among the countries that manage to save the most resources, as it only uses up the resources allocated to it on December 17th.
Indonesia runs out on November 18, Nicaragua on the 11th and Ecuador on October 31.
The Global Footprint Network is an international research organization that provides decision-makers with tools to help the human economy function within Earth's ecological limits. Calculations to estimate overload days are based on the most recent data.
On June 5th, World Environment Day, the organization announces the date of “Earth Overshoot Day”, the moment when Humanity's need for resources and environmental services exceeds the Planet Earth's capacity to regenerate those same resources.
Planet Overshoot Day 2024 was on August 1, one day earlier than the previous year.